New Market's long wait for succour: Overhaul cry for 151-year-old landmark
Telegraph | 16 March 2025
The 151-year-old New Market is crumbling. Fragments from the wooden spire of its clock tower are breaking apart, the roof leaks and the electrical wiring is crying out for an immediate overhaul.
A renovation project for which the state government allocated money to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) more than a year ago has yet to take off.
Traders at SS Hogg Market — or New Market, as it is popularly called — told The Telegraph that repairs were needed urgently. The drainage inside the complex is in bad shape and the market gets flooded every wet season. The walkways are broken and the toilets barely usable.
A two-member team of professors from Jadavpur University’s construction engineering department, whose advice the KMC has sought for New Market’s renovation, has recommended strengthening the foundation, walls and the vault roof.
The team has also suggested measures to make the structure earthquake-resistant. That will, however, require a large number of traders to be shifted, a tricky path the KMC appears wary to tread.
Civic officials had said in January last year that they would soon begin the repairs and renovation. More than a year on, the market’s condition has only become worse.
“We were told by the KMC at a meeting that they would soon start the renovation, but nothing has moved,” said Ashok Gupta, president of the SS Hogg Market Traders Association.
“Chunks have fallen off the ceiling in many parts of the market. The toilets are in terrible condition. The passages are broken and the market gets flooded after rain.”
The KMC is responsible for the upkeep of around 50 public markets.
A visit to New Market showed trees growing from cracks in the walls.
Despite the poor upkeep and dim interiors that mark a contrast to the city’s glitzy new malls, New Market remains a big attraction, teeming with customers ahead of Eid, Durga Puja, Diwali and Christmas.
A trader said at least 50,000 people visit the market every day. The numbers rise during Eid and more than double ahead of Durga Puja.
“It’s a very old market and we have to strengthen it. To do so, many shops have to be shifted,” said Amiruddin (Bobby), the mayoral council member who heads KMC’s market department.
“The shop owners may not agree to relocate. The renovation may take months.”
Bobby said the KMC was worried about finding a suitable place for shop owners to relocate during the repairs. “We want to present a plan that can be implemented seamlessly. That is why we are taking time.”
He said the state government had allocated ₹26 crore for repairs and renovation at New Market.
Gupta said: “The KMC has not yet presented a proposal to the traders about shifting. We will discuss it among ourselves if any such plan is presented to us.”
He said there were 2,900 shops in the market complex, which opened on January 1, 1874.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the then Calcutta Corporation had decided to build what was to be the first planned municipal market in India.
A commission was set up to ensure fair pricing and a daily supply of goods. Under the leadership of the commissioner and justice for peace, Sir Stuart Hogg, an architecture competition was announced.
The civic body accepted the designs submitted by Richard Roskell Bayne, and Burn and Co. was given the job of building the market complex.
New Market is listed as a Grade-I heritage building in KMC’s Graded List of Heritage Buildings for its “architectural style”. The clock tower, too, is Grade-I.
The JU team has advised putting up a “seismic band” — a series of reinforced concrete bands — to turn the New Market building earthquake-resistant.
“It is an un-reinforced masonry structure. We recommended a seismic band in the building that is the recommended and standard method for such structures to make them earthquake resistant,” said Gokul Mondal, professor of construction engineering at JU.
“There are some cast-iron columns, which are brittle. But there are no reinforced columns or beams in the building because it was built at a time when buildings did not have these components.”
Mondal admitted the “practical challenges” of putting up the seismic band.
The KMC has requested the JU team to suggest alternative measures.
“We will have to see what alternative measures are possible so that the displacement of shops can be avoided,” Mondal said.